News

UK patients are set to benefit from a wide range of new healthcare technologies approved by the NHS Innovation Accelerator scheme, designed to create the conditions and culture changes necessary to accelerate adoption of cutting-edge solutions and thus boost patient care.

Horizon Pharma has launched a $3-billion hostile takeover bid for Depomed, taking its offer straight to shareholders after an initial approach was spurned by the latter’s management.

US regulators have green-lighted Novartis’ hotly-anticipated heart failure drug Entresto (formerly LCZ696) six weeks ahead of schedule, offering patients a new option which many hope could revolutionise treatment of the condition.

National health and social care services are failing to meet the needs of patients with dementia, with hundreds of thousands let down by a lack of support, according to a report by The Alzheimer’s Society.

American companies dominated the Creative Floor Awards last Thursday, scooping 19 of the 31 prizes for creative work in healthcare.

Dublin, Ireland-based Allergan is shelling out $125 million on US medical device group Oculeve and its dry eye disease development programmes.

Biogen has signed a pact with AGTC to develop its gene-based therapies for multiple ophthalmic diseases in a deal valued at more than $1 billion.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Giotrif has shown a greater survival benefit than Roche’s Tarceva in previously-treated patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

The King’s Fund has warned that if Chancellor George Osborne does not announce additional funding in the Budget this week then the government will have to face consequences of damaging patient care or a Department of Health overspend.

The European Commission has approved MSD’s biologic Simponi for the treatment of adult patients with severe, active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. 

The National Health Service is ailing behind many of its international peers on a range of key care quality indicators such as preventable hospital admissions and cancer survival, a new report shows.

US regulators have agreed to review Pfizer’s application to market a once-daily formulation of its JAK-inhibitor Xeljanz for the second-line treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Sanofi’s next-generation insulin Lantus XR has bagged its first approval in Asia with a green light from Japanese regulators for controlling blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes, offering a new treatment option with a favourable safety profile.

The FDA has approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ first-in-class cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment Orkambi.

ViiV Healthcare will offer cheap versions of its HIV drug Tivicay in China and other developing countries through a new partnership with Desano Pharmaceuticals.